Taking a deep breath of salty water, Jake wished for the umpteenth time that they had stayed on the island. Pressing his back against the enormous underwater growth, mostly reminiscent to a blueish alien coral, he looked up. A cluster of small shadows, easily distinguishable with the light coming from the surface, were circling above him. At a glance, he guessed there were still at least forty.

Behind him, the enormous irregular coral continued for as far as he could see, eventually disappearing into the dark depths of the ocean. Although his eyes worked even better in the water than on land, he still couldn't penetrate that absolute darkness.

A soft moan drew his attention back to the present, and he quickly looked to the side, concern on his face. Huddled on the ground was Tergin, face twisted in pain, gently rubbing the blue scales on his right leg.

At a glance, nothing seemed wrong with it, but Jake knew better. Remembering how the leg had been snapped and twisted in three different directions made him nauseous. He wondered how much pain resistance the Kobold must have to hold from screaming when Jake bent it back into the right shape.

Remembering the monster who did it made Jake turn his gaze to the surface again, and he wondered if the others had made it out alright.

A sudden trumpeting noise, muffled and deformed by the water, caused the shadows above him to rush off into the distance. Waiting for a moment to make sure they had left, Jake then swam to Tergin.

The other didn't seem to notice him until he was almost floating right on top of him.

"Can you swim?" Jake had long since gotten used to how deep and muted his voice sounded underwater. Now he just made sure to keep his voice as low as possible while singing the words instead of saying them.

Struggling, Tergin looked up and slowly shook his head. "No, but we can't stay here."

Biting back a useless remark, Jake sighed at his rotten luck. Why did he have to be stranded here with someone he barely knew. If it was Mason at least, he could have made some small talk.

"I know. Let's see if I can drag you." He said, trying to sound optimistic.

A nod from Tergin was all Jake got, and he swam behind the other. It took a few tries, but eventually, they found a way that worked. Tergin managed to hold onto Jake's shoulder, leaving Jake with his arms free in the event he needed them.

Propelling him forward as slow as he could, Jake felt the water push against the webbing between his toes. Looking over his shoulder at Tergins cramped face, eyes shut tightly and lips pursed while barely hanging on, he knew going any faster would probably not be a good idea.

Moving along the coral, Jake remembered he had to keep going in this direction until he found a blue and purple reef. Getting here, he had been fleeing for his life and only barely remembered how they had gotten here. And Tergin couldn't tell him because he had been unconscious at the time.

Looking to the side, Jake eyed the deep chasm, shuddering at the thought of what might be lurking in its depths. On his other side was the coral growth, seeming a safer option for travel with openings to hide. But the humongous crab that had ambushed them earlier had proven that to be nothing more than an illusion of security.

After swimming for almost an hour, Jake noticed a change in the scenery in front of him. The darkness receded somewhat, and small plants could be seen growing along the coral reef. In front of him, the seafloor began rising sharply and widening out.

Stopping, Jake looked at Tergin. The wounded Kobold was barely awake, staring his way, but Jake saw little recognition in his eyes. Tergin shuddered. He was clutching his wounded leg with one hand and Jakes shoulder with the other. Upon closer inspection, Jake saw the leg was now slightly bloated, and the scales had turned dark and dull.

Swallowing back some nausea, Jake turned his attention to the hill. A small blue and purple reef grew along one side of the slope. If he followed it up, he knew he would arrive at a wondrous underwater world, filled with corals fish and hidden dangers. There he would need to pass through a mazelike reef, dodging all kinds of monsters and Hydraci until he arrived at the other side. At that point, Tergin had better be able to tell him where to go, because he wouldn't know. That was, if he got that far.

Noticing something moving in the corner of his eye, Jake looked over and saw blue energy specs rushing his way. Panicking, he focused and relaxed the mana-muscle, as he had started calling it, and the energy stopped moving, quickly dispersing. It was a trick he had recently learning from listening to Bolyr.

Silently thanking the other for his chatty nature, Jake began half swimming, half dragging himself and Tergin up the hill.

What had taken seconds on the way down, took him minutes this time, mainly because he stopped moving every time he thought he heard something.

The slope became steeper the higher he got, and in the end, he was swimming straight up along a wall. Covered in yellow plants hanging down from the top small fish swam in and out of it.

When he got to the end of the wall, he took a careful look over the edge.

Orange gold and purple tendril-like plants covered everything. They waved around, tens of meters high as if grasping for the abundance of sunlight above. Surrounding their thin roots was a massive maze of coral reefs, white and yellow, interspaced with large black boulders. It reminded Jake of the documentaries he had seen on the National Geographic streaming channel about the coral reefs that used to exist on earth.

Shaking himself, he looked at the moving shadows and shapes that flittered around. Massive fish and small sea snakes were hunting smaller fish and crabs who where hunting even smaller fish.

Light from above shone on everything except for one area. There a massive swath of the reef was covered in a slow-moving shadow. Looking up, Jake clenched his teeth to stop from gasping.

Above the reef, close to the surface of the water was something that vaguely resembled a giant sea turtle. It was split in half, and a muscular green tongue was moving around between the edges. As soon as anything got to close the tongue shot forward stretching an insane distance, wrapping around its hapless victim. It was then dragged back to the middle and out of sight while the edges clamped together.

Seeing the turtle thing swim off along the reef while chewing, Jake shivered and looked around. As far as he could see, there weren't any Hydraci, and after a moment he began swimming forward. Dodging between the different corals he tried to make as little movement as possible.

Making sure Tergin was alright, he saw the other Kobold seemed to be semi-conscious, his hand gripping Jake's shoulder automatically. Getting worried, Jake sped up. He needed to find a safe place for Tergin to rest.

When he figured he was around halfway through, Jake spotted a group of dots close to the surface speeding his way. Clenching his jaw, he looked around. All around were colorful fish, dodging in and out of the holes in the coral. He saw a fish the size of a dolphin rush into a hole, moments later exiting from another one a bit to the side. That would do!

Rushing over, he ignored the possible pain Terging might feel and barely made it into the cavern before a group of twenty or so Hydraci arrived above his previous location.

Looking around the dark cave, Jake saw nothing move but noticed three exits. Outside he saw that the Hydraci were moving in quick bursts, looking around every time they stopped. They hadn't spotted him, and moments later they were again moving away rapidly.

"This sucks..." Jake whispered, cursing himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

Luckily the soft words only echoed throughout the cave, and the Hydraci kept moving away. Sighing in relief, Jake turned around and froze. Less than a meter from him, two blue vertical pupils stared unblinkingly at him.

Swallowing Jake looked at what was poking its head into the cave.

It was something resembling a mix between a hammerhead shark and a dragon, and at least the size of a great white. Dark blue scales covered it, softly reflecting the light. Its elongated hammer-shaped head was attached to a muscular neck, ending in a sinewy lizard-like body that was partially inside the cave. Behind the neck, Jake could barely make out two rudimentary wings folded close to the body.